Overwhelmed by sickness and death that has ravaged our world , especially the vulnerable, communities of color, those on the margins. We are tired. Tired of the racism in our treets and structures, an open wound, a sin against you, taking the lives and denying the dignity of your children. We are called to mourn, to lament, may the dead rest in your peace. May our acts of solidarity and justice with the living be a memorial to those who have died. Lord, bless our hurting nation. Bless and give peace to the amilies of george floyd, ahmad arbury, Breonna Taylor and so many other family who is have lost a son, daughter, father, mother, sister, brother, friend. Bless those who take to our streets to protest injustice. Give them courage, wisdom, and respect for others. Bless all those who seek justice and peace when we have two ittle of both. Bless on those who are called to protect us. Give those in Law Enforcement a commitment to equal justice for l, respect for the lives and dignity of all those who serve and protect us from harm. Bless our leaders. Give them wisdom, compassion, a thirst for justice, to help them advance liberty and justice for all. Bless your church, wounded by racism. Make us your body, your people called to bring good news to the poor, liberty to captives and to set the downtrodden free. Bless all who are participating in this dialogue. Giver us strength and courage. Open our eyes. Fill our eyes with faith, hope, and love in this time of testing. Send forth your holy spirit, oh, lord. And renew the face of the earth, amen. Thank you, archbishop. We are honored to have the president of Georgetown University offer some opening reflections and then we will turn to what will be a lively and challenging discussion. Thank you, john. Over these past few months, as we have grappled with the impacts of covid19 in our community, our colleagues and our initiative on catholic social thought and life led by john have helped six virtual gatherings to ensure that the resources of catholic social thought are present to us, conversations on the Global Dimensions of the pandemic and moral challenges, policy issues, leadership of pope francis and the responses of our religious communities, reflections on the responsibility we have to one another and to the environment. Responsibility we have to one another and to the environment. I wish to express my appreciation to everyone who has gathered with us today for this important conversation. To our panelists, we are deeply grateful to you and to archbishop gregory, thank you for helping to open our gathering and for the wisdom, faith and commitment to service that you share with all of us. Privilege ofthe welcoming archbishop gregory to our campus three years ago when he was serving as archbishop of atlanta. This was a time during which our community had begun to focus our onention more intentionally issues of Racial Injustice and the perspectives and experiences being shared with us by members of our black community and the responsibility we have as a catholic and just with institution, as an institution with direct ties to the institution of slavery, to grapple with issues not only of social justice but Racial Justice. Joined byshop was another of todays panelists, shacklin, andha their moderator and john lewis. Together, they provided an extraordinary reflection on the responsibility we all have and the realities we face in confronting racism. In this moment, as we gather today with additional colleagues, Ralph Macleod and gloria purvis, we remain grateful for their insights and their leadership in raising issues of importance to all of thend helping us imagine community we hope to become and that we are striving to be. In recent weeks, we have witnessed many injustices. Floyd,ling of george Breonna Taylor, a mod arbery. We have seen instances of violence by police. We have been reminded of the impact of Health Disparities and the additional challenges that people of color face as part of their everyday lives. Moments, we are reminded of the necessary work, urgent and important work of building a more just, fair and equitable society. Responsibility that all of us share. We share here at georgetown. We share it because of our deep belief in the dignity of each person. We share because of our deep ,ommitment to the common good he believed that there is a good that we can achieve together, that we can never possibly achieve alone. It is a belief that we are all interconnected and that each one of us deserves to live in communities that enable the development of our full humanity. I offer these words of welcome and gratitude to our panelists and to all the members of our tomunity who seek with us embrace our responsibilities to one another and to the common good. Thank you. President degioia. I would like to thank the thousands of people on this call to take a second and recall what you thought when you first saw on theeo of george floyd street in minneapolis. What went through your mind after you saw that . Lets take a second each of us and take a moment to think what did we see and how did we respond . What i have learned in these tough days is i need to listen and learn more. Think of whoo could help me learn. Who should i listen to . Who are the leaders in our Catholic Community . Pleased that we have archbishop gregory, the archbishop of washington, the professor in georgetown who has been a leader in so many macleod, gloria purvis, i would like to ask each what wenttell us through your heart and mind when you saw that video . Lets begin with ralph. Thank you you for the question. I recall becoming physically sick, almost to the point of fainting and passing out. As i thought about it, it occurred to me that this was a deja vu moment, a moment where we saw another time where a person at the hands of Law Enforcement for no other reason but being black was being killed and murdered. It appeared the person did not fear any consequences because he did it in the light of day and did it in front of his colleagues who were also in Law Enforcement who did not assist. It kind of affirmed in a way for me the protection that the whoem has for those persons abuse folks for no other reason than because of their race. I remember feeling angry and frustrated and feeling an alltoofamiliar feeling ive been feeling for the last 1520 years and it was painful, very painful. Gloria, could you unmute yourself and tell us what went through your heart and head . Reliving a trauma right now, talking about it. Remembertched it, i saying stop in the name of god, stop. Grievous to was so do this to another human being. Godst thought the image of is being abused right here in front of me. When he called out for his mother, that nearly broke me. It broke me to see a man call out in desperation i felt like i could have pushed him off. I wanted to physically push him off and i felt my hands pushing but to no avail. , thatind of helplessness kind of crippling helplessness in the face of such a brutal act against another human being has greatly disturbed me and i dont think i will ever forget it. For people who are prolife and dont yet understand it, let me put it to you like this its like watching an abortion being performed and you can do nothing. That should be horrifying and upsetting to anybody. I prayed to god. I said what have we become, please have mercy on us. Archbishop gregory . John,tell you the truth, when i saw the event, i had a collage of feelings. One of which brought me back to my own childhood when, as a youngster, i was taken to the till. G of emmett as a youngster, being eventelmed by the awful and also, it was one of those moments that, as a young, black really, black person, parents had to give you the talk. How do you perform, how do you respond, how do you behave when you are in such a precarious situation . Of the othero events that have taken the lives of africanamericans, mr. Aubrey , we knowly mr. Floyd that Michael Brown it brings back a whole collage of individuals who have been assassinated and assassinated for no other reason than the color of their skin. Marcia. I have not watch the entire video. Because we are broadcasting to thousands of people i dont know, i dont feel comfortable sharing the trauma but this is what i do know i think a lot about people like talk aboutn prejean the Death Penalty and their decision to bear witness to victims of state sanctioned violence. I think about the fact that we are living in an era where everyday people at any moment, just because they are in the presence of a person of color in this moment, i recognize the power of people who are actually with someone on that journey when the state has determined that they are disposable and they should die in a spectacular way because that means that was on that mans neck was weighted by all of the systems that have sanctioned that behavior and all of the people who depend on that behavior in order to secure their own personal property as well as their status in society. Those personalr and powerful feelings. I grew up about a mile and a half from where george floyd died. I was struck by archbishop gregorys comment. My parents never thought they had to tell me how to protect myself. They lived in the same city, we both lived in the same area. Let me turn to archbishop gregory. Everybody knows archbishop gregory. He is our archbishop in washington we are so blessed to have him. Its been a tough time in washington and lots of ways. He was archbishop of atlanta. He grew up in illinois, he wanted to be a priest before he was actually a catholic. You know lots of these stories. One thing you may not know is the new letter on racism was archbishop gregorys idea and we fought for that. Statement, you made a sometime over the last couple of days thats gotten a lot of attention and a journalist friend of mine came to me and asked why did he make this statement . We will talk about that in a minute but what i said to her was you have to read the two other statements he made about the murder of the young man in georgia and the death of the man in minneapolis. Statements, in the middle of a global pandemic, you called racism a virus. When you are at georgetown for the session, you said we have to learn to talk about the r word. Why do you describe racism as a virus which we need to confront and talk about . That phrase because obviously, throughout the world, we are grappling with a virus. Image to remind us that there are things that that frightenes us but also come in silent and un undiscovered ways. How did the coronavirus develop . How was it passed on . Response that will protect us . Those are exactly the same questions that we need to ask about racism. Racism this silent but deadly virus passed on to other people . Is it learned at home . Transmitted through our structures, is it a part of the air that we breathe . Find a vaccine . How can we protect ourselves . How can we render it ineffective. Image ints an apropos a moment when we are all thinking about a virus that threatens us. Lets talk about your statement. You were disturbed by president trumps visit to the john paul center. People might ask why and what roles were you speaking . Why did you take that step . Honest, whenectly i saw the event take place at preparatoryand the activity, i said this is awful. This is the use of a sacred place a sacred, symbolic to be used as a political ploy. I didnt think it was appropriate especially at the pope john the second, Pope John Paul ii shrine because he was a concern aboutble the dignity of human beings. Life, before he became the supreme pontiff, he was baffling systems that were intended to destroy, weaken or certainly deny human dignity. That shrine is a holy place because of the man that it honors and it should never have been used as a place for a political statement. John . The five most common words in washington are you need to unmute yourself. You were there when Pope John Paul ii in st. Louis called all of us to confront the plague of racism and peaceful protest is how he and his allies brought down communism. Let me turn to marcia if i could. Herea, you are a professor at georgetown and youre one of the most popular professors. You are in the History Department and the africanamerican studies department. You wrote a wonderful book, you have a new book, a fascinating book called franchise about mcdonalds and the black community. The slavery memory and Reconciliation Committee t to help georgetown begin to confront our complicity and racism. You, with others created let me get this right the ferguson syllabus and worked on a project after the death of freddie gray. You are one of the people that helped me know what i dont know. My question is, what are we missing in the commentary jack what you talk about as far as Economic Life in the black community and the focus on black men but you focus on black women. What is it about this crisis that we dont understand and that conventional women conventional wisdom misses . I think what we are failing to recognize is that what is happening in america isnt simply about racism because racism needs other counterparts in order to grow and feed itself. This is also a referendum on capitalism. The fact that people in the about of a pandemic, its the economic inequality, its about the fact that we have allowed a certain segment of the population to trivialize others without accountability. What we are seeing in all 50 states and around the globe is a referendum about capitalism, colonialism and White Supremacy. These conversations about things like Police Reform or people just need businesses and their committee and they will be fine, this is the point. This is about a series of interconnected systems and the fact that our Public Resources go toward a group of people that terrorize others in order for people to feel safe or to protect their own resources is the fundamental problem. The Catholic Church in the United States knows everything that needs to happen to solve this problem but there is no political will and no desire because racism allows for some peoples Property Values remain high, it allows some schools to remain prestigious and others to remain under resourced. In this moment, the idea that there is something new to learn is exasperating because if you think about it this way, if you are 6. 5 years old in the United States, you have already lived through two major racial uprisings. What happens when you are 30 and 40 and 50 . Recognitionno real reckoning with all of this that has been left to happen and there is a large part portion of this population that depends on moments like this to continue in order to keep their power. Of how a loss right now much more sophisticated this course can get. My last book was about the past 50 years of state failure in black communities. If you go back 100 years and you look at the right commission of 1919, what are black people saying . Police rotelle, none of jobs, poor schools for kids, lack of health care, terrorism by our White Brothers and sisters. If weve had a hundred years to learn this lesson, i dont know what will make this moment different. Thank you. Very much for that powerful indictment really. Ralph, your director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development which was born in response to what people would call the riots in 1968. It tries to help people lift themselves up and defend their own dignity in their own communities. You have been a City Council Person and i believe mayor pro tem of fort worth. You have gotten lots of awards. How theo ask you coronavirus, how covid19 reflects the kinds of things that marcia was talking about. Everything we know says this virus has exacerbated the inequality and injustice in our society and this is personal for you. I especially want to thank you for participating in this dialogue. You are recovering from covid19. That haven a house watched for priests that have died from covid19. Two of them in their 20s and 30s. If anybody thinks this is a hoax , they should talk to you and what youve been through. You feeling, please convey our condolences to the paulists. In what ways does the thenavirus reveal structures of injustice we are trying to focus on . Pleasure to, its a be with all of you this afternoon. Simple to say too impactedcoronavirus is , is only impacted in the Health Care Facility that health care is the only symptom impacted by it. Does not and of itself operate in a vacuum. Its contributing to a lot of the problems we see in the africanamerican community. Its too simple to say its just health care. The health care and africanamerican committees has been well chronicled and discussed as being both unaffordable and on accessible. Even when they were able to have testing, it was clearly africanamerican communities that were one of the last communities to have testing. They found testing for zoo animals and star athletes long before they were able to get testing for africanamerican communities. Neighborhood housing in africanamerican communities often times will be overcrowded where social distancing will be impossible. Its clearly difficult. Racism and redlining has can tribbett a do that for generations. Has contributed to that for generations. Jobs thatries and were considered essential. Often times, they were only considered essential by the persons who were the employers in the persons positive positively affected by the bottom line. They were environment, African American people will often live where toxic waste exists, where there are sites and clean water is difficult to find. We saw that in prisons including the one in fort worth where several people died because they were clustered together after they tested positive for coronavirus. Finally, thing its important to that there is a degree of stress, a degree of trauma associated with being africanamerican in the year 2020, given all we have been experiencing them all we see and hear. Its one thing to pick up a newspaper and see in the news but when we live it in our neig